Our supervisors

The Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences (ASU) is the foremost astronomy organization and at the same time one of the oldest scientific institutions in the country. The major part of the institute is located in the village Ondřejov southeast from Prague, a separate worksite is located in the capital city of Prague. 

The research conducted at ASU covers a wide range of topics; from the immediate environs of the Earth to distant galaxies and black holes in their cores. More specifically, our expertise lies in the solar physics (flares and prominences, solar atmosphere, helioseismology, space weather), physics of hot stars, exoplanets, asteroid and meteor physics, astrophysics of galaxies and star evolution, relativistic astrophysics and the planet Earth itself. Our researchers are involved in a rich set of international projects in Europe and worldwide. A major part of research is oriented internationally, we have close cooperation with European Southern Observatory (ESO), European Space Agency (ESA) and other organizations . Our researchers make use of some of the world’s largest infrastructures for astronomical observations (ALMA, VLT) or collaborate on the development on the next-generation instruments (CTA, LISA, ATHENA, EST), the Institute has founded and operates the Central-European network of fireball detectors.

Our researches frequently publish in high impact scientific journals. About two thirds of all our impact papers are published in the most renowned astronomical journals like Nature, Science, Astronomy & Astrophysics, The Astrophysical Journal and Monthly Notices, and the remaining one third in other more specialized journals. We regularly publish about 100 original papers  per year in international impacted peer-reviewed journals. 

ASU is deeply involved in a number of ESA projects through the PRODEX program currently contributing to the development of LISA and ATHENA missions. Quite recently we have contributed to the construction of instruments that are onboard Solar Orbiter  or JUICE missions.

The Institute also provides a highly-developed infrastructure for its own astronomical observations. It operates a 2-m on-site optical telescope and two additional 1.5-m telescopes at ESO La Silla observatory in Chile. These instruments are used in exoplanet research (as a support for TESS and PLATO missions), asteroid observations (contributing to the recent DART mission successful impact) and exploration of hot stars. We are also part of the European Space Weather Service Network SWESNET doing day-by-day Sun observations and space weather predictions.